Make Your Own Reel

What can I say about film that already hasn't already been said centuries over! Clint Eastwood, Charlie Chaplain, Orson Welles, Bruce Lee, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese and dare I say it Christopher Nolan, among others have become household names because we all have to get our hour and a half fix! (Or 2-3 hours in some bitter/sweet cases).

So we ask, who wouldn't want to be a part of a set sanctioned by Hollywood? Who wouldn't want to feel like they’re reliving an Oscar nominated narrative? Who doesn't want to tread where the cinema mavericks once deemed fit? Join us as we explore some of these locations right here in our motherland!

OUT OF AFRICA (1985)

Based on the 1937 book by Isak Dinesen, Out Of Africa is a captivating story of Karen Blixen played by Meryl Streep who moved to Kenya with her Danish husband Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke to tend to their massive coffee plantation. Bror turned out to be a ruthless womanizer and was immediately given the boot by an unapologetic Karen. Karen meets Denys (Robert Redford) and a romantic affair ensues.

Out Of Africa was shot in several locations- Ngong Hills, Nairobi, Maasai Mara and even the Karen Blixen Museum. To this date, Karen Blixen is the only woman to be invited for a drink in the Muthaiga Country Club. Local Kenyan laws prohibited the use of wild animals in film. Trained lions were imported from California to perform majority of the stunts which I find rather odd and an unnecessary strain on the producer’s budget. All in all, the film, which won multiple academy awards, was a great success!

Make your own Reel!

Recreate the vintage British occupied Kenya with romantic flare! Want to ride on horseback?  Venture on a Safari? Peer down at the savannah from hot air balloon? Enjoy a sun downer at an exclusive country club as you scrutinize the eligibility of a social climber scrambling for your debonair status? All this is possible! Below are some of the locations that will bring out the Baroness/ Countess/ Duchess in you (hopefully you’ll adopt the refined aspects and not the debauchery that often accosts the Elizabeth Bathorys, The Mary Tudors and the Marie Antoinettes of our time).

MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON (1990)

Tales based on adventurers and misanthropes are rather a trip! This particular one takes us back to 1854 during the Crimean war when a certain Victorian man named Sir Richard Francis Burton (an anthropologist, botanist, poet, and linguist with 27 languages under his belt and an all round existentialist) shunned his aristocracy and resorted to finding the source of the. His only companion was a skilled marksman and relic hunter named John Hanning Speke.

The men are forced to return to England after a native attack in which Burton had a javelin hurled through his jaw and Speke, badly injured, narrowly missed dismemberment. They returned to Africa in 1857 and persuaded the natives to succumb to a symbiotic relationship with them. Friction arose between the partners when Speke went back to the The Royal Geographic Society claiming to have found Lake Victoria as the source of the Nile, while Burton was of the opinion that the source was one of the Lake basins.

The pair endured several hardships: a lion attack; a warrior's lance piercing Burton's face from cheek to cheek; a bug lodging itself in Speke's ear rendering him deaf; the loss of men from desertions and tribal wars; and, eventually, imprisonment in an evil and sadistic kingdom.

This film is lauded for showing Kenya in such an aesthetically extraordinary light. Locations ranged from Hell's Gate, Lamu to Lake Turkana.

Make your own reel!

If your 9-5 isn't generating the revenue you’d anticipated, why not venture into being an anthropologist! Can’t be that difficult to “discover” your own native tribe or a different aspect of them that hasn't previously been explored while you’re on holiday! Below is a list of remote locations with cultural visits provided that should be well worth your time:

LARA CROFT TOMB RAIDER: THE CRADLE OF LIFE (2003): 

Lara is tasked with the objective of finding Pandora’s Box (box that supposedly contains all the plagues in the world) before a Nobel laureate / evil scientist Jonathan Reiss beats her to it. Angelina Jolie turned all of us into believers after she portrayed this console game heroine with utmost dexterity. The box was later revealed to be somewhere near the Kilimanjaro. The filmmakers shot in Amboseli and Hell's Gate for approximately 2 weeks to get a perfect view of the mountain.

Make your own reel!

Ignite the badass in you and perhaps save the world from an impending Armageddon after an early morning game drive! Discuss world domination as you sip your sun downer and channel Angelina Jolie in the following Amboseli locations.